California Building Industry Association

CBIA/BIA News

Van Daele Named ‘Builder of the Year’

U-T San Diego
Mike Van Daele, CEO of Van Daele Homes has received the prestigious “Builder Of The Year” award from the Building Industry Association of Southern California. Van Daele Homes is a family-owned company known for the exceptional value it provides home buyers across several counties throughout Southern California. Van Daele has been at the helm of Van Daele Homes since its inception in 1987. The BIA-SC selection committee who awarded Van Daele with the designation noted the company’s superior quality and customer service as outstanding factors that have raised the industry bar and made Van Daele Homes the top competitor among new home builders.

Fees and Costs

El Centro City Council OKs impact fees to continue deferred, but they must still be paid

Imperial Valley Press
An ordinance that would defer certain impact fees developers pay up-front when applying for building permits was approved by the El Centro City Council through its consent agenda Tuesday. In response to dire economic times and the city wanting to encourage development, in December 2010 the city established a temporary ordinance that defers impact fees, according to a report to the council. The ordinance expired Feb. 1. “Since we want to continue the deferment, we are extending the ordinance until Feb. 1, 2013,” City Attorney Kris Becker said. So payments of developer impact fees and water and sewer capacity fees will be postponed for authorized projects until either the final inspection is done, the certificate of occupancy is issued or a year after the payments have been deferred elapses, Becker said.

Oakdale takes step toward cutting developer fees

Modesto Bee
OAKDALE -- It could be cheaper to build a home here after the City Council on Monday signaled its intent to cut developer fees. "We need to stimulate construction and jobs in Oakdale," said Councilman Tom Dunlop, who was joined by three other council members in voting to have staff come back to them with lower fees for Sunset Meadows, an 18-unit subdivision of 1,300- to 1,500-square-foot-homes planned for an area just off East F Street. The fees are $24,722 per house, and the city will reduce them to $13,500 per house. The council's intent is to consider reducing fees on a case-by-case basis for 24 months for all development, from residential to commercial. Councilman Jason Howard voted against the proposal.

Affordable Housing

Inclusionary housing bill dead

San Mateo Daily Journal
Below market-rate housing requirements for new rental developments are in jeopardy as Senate Bill 184 has been declared officially dead this year. The bill, authored by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, aimed to restore cities’ zoning authority to require inclusionary housing after the court ruled against BMR housing requirements in a 2009 case, Palmer v. the city of Los Angeles. The bill officially died Feb. 1 and cannot be reintroduced this year. Locally, the city of San Mateo prohibited last May the construction of new rental housing in the city, with some exceptions, until staff can figure out how to require developers to provide affordable housing without violating state law. With SB 184 now dead, the city can only ask a developer to voluntarily comply with the city’s inclusionary housing requirements.

Land Use/ Planning

Burlingame City Council gets first crack at downtown development proposals

San Mateo Daily Journal
Negotiations to develop more housing and retail in downtown Burlingame are moving ahead after a City Council meeting Monday which featured some serious questions about historic property and other details. In an attempt to proactively bring to life aspects of the city’s Downtown Specific Plan, the council asked for development proposals using city-owned parking lots last year. On Monday, concepts submitted by the top two choices — Grosvenor and Equity Residential — were discussed and ultimately resulted in the council voting to move forward with negotiations. The vote was a first step in possibly creating more residential and retail options in the downtown. Getting the go-ahead doesn’t mean these ideas will become a reality.

Santa Cruz Council reviews general plan focused on sustainability

Santa Cruz Sentinel
SANTA CRUZ - The City Council heard plans Tuesday from staff about a proposal to increase housing density, support economic development and battle climate change during the next two decades. A few citizens also weighed in on the city's general plan through 2030, which will guide land use, natural resource protection, historic preservation and cultural development. The council took no action Tuesday, but will adopt the plan later this year. City staff said sustainability was the main lens through which the plan's goals and expectations were seen. The plan calls for greater mixed-use development along major commercial corridors, where access to public transportation is greatest, in an effort to reduce commuting and other vehicle trips.

Developer wants to nix affordable housing on M.V. project

Orange County Register
MISSION VIEJO – With the elimination of redevelopment agencies, the developer of a three-story apartment complex at the city's north end is asking the city to eliminate the affordable housing requirement that was a condition of approval for the project. UDR/Pacific Los Alisos won final approval in August of a plan to demolish the 120,000-square-foot Kmart building near the 241 toll road and replace it with 320 apartments, a club house, fitness center and outdoor amenities. According to the approved plan, the apartment building must include 48 units for very low- and low-income households. The city was planning to provide "a forgivable loan to UDR" of $4.1 million in redevelopment funds under an affordable housing agreement, according to a letter from UDR sent to the city Jan. 26.

Rancho gets new housing proposal

Burbank Leader
Faced with strong neighborhood opposition to his original plan, the developer of a proposed 120-unit condominium development in the Rancho area of Burbank is now asking to build 50 single-family homes on the roughly 5-acre parcel. New Urban West, which submitted a development application to the city in June for the condo project on Riverside Drive, faced a steep uphill battle, with residents expressing concerns about the proposed development’s impact to traffic, neighborhood density and other issues. Even before the Burbank City Council had an opportunity to review the project, residents took their case to City Hall, railing against the proposal at a neighborhood planning meeting in November.

Divided council OKS report on Beach/Ellis project

Orange County Register
HUNTINGTON BEACH An environmental report for a 2.7-acre, six-story development on Beach Boulevard and Ellis Avenue that does not yet have plans submitted to the city has been approved -- a move that caused skepticism and questions among council members. City Council members at their meeting on Monday voted 5-2 in favor of an environmental review of a prospective mixed-use project that would include apartment housing and commercial space. The project could have a six-story development that would include 37,000 square feet of retail space and 105 residential units, the report says. About 30,000 square feet of the commercial space is proposed to be slated for a market.

Market

INDUSTRY: ‘Smart home’ technology goes mainstream

Riverside Press-Enterprise
The thermostat in Colleen Lunden’s Upland condominium knows to turn itself on at 4:45 a.m. to warm up the house for her husband, Chris, an early riser, then to power down until she’s ready to get up at a more reasonable hour. Later in the day, Lunden’s office computer shows her a live feed from security cameras in the condo so she can check in on her two dogs. After work, an application on her smartphone lets her turns on the lights at home before she walks in the door. The Lundens’ home is a lot “smarter” since the couple signed on for a home automation package from Time Warner Cable last fall, and Colleen Lunden is hooked. “I’m finding that I really, really enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would,” she said. Once the province of the wealthy, home automation systems are going mainstream.

ECONOMY: Expect the slow growth to continue

Riverside Press-Enterprise
Inland Southern California’s economy will take a few small steps forward in 2012, but the housing sector, which spurred the area’s stratospheric growth a few years ago, will remain mostly absent from the mix, a forecast released Monday predicts. In fact, the best news about the housing market in San Bernardino and Riverside counties this year is that it won’t be a drag on the overall economy the way it was in 2009 and 2010, economists at Chapman University said. Residential real estate as measured by the price of the typical Inland home will remain fairly static. Esmael Adibi, Chapman University’s chief economist, presented his findings Monday at an event sponsored by the Building Industry Association and Ortho Block Co., an Orange County-based building material firm.

Foreclosures dropped sharply in 2011 says new report

Central Valley Business Times
Completed foreclosures for all of 2011 in the United States totaled 830,000 compared with 1.1 million in 2010, according to a new report Wednesday from financial information company CoreLogic Inc. of Santa Ana. In December 2011 there was a month-over-month decrease in completed foreclosures to 55,000 from 57,000 in November 2011. The December 2011 completed foreclosures figure was also down from one year earlier when it stood at 67,000. From the start of the financial crisis in September 2008 through December 2011, there have been approximately 3.2 million completed foreclosures.

Refloating the housing market

Los Angeles Times
After President Obama announced his latest effort to try to stem foreclosures last week, House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said it was time for Washington to stop meddling and let the market bottom out. But the problem hasn't been Washington interference; it's been poorly designed programs and hesitant lenders. The right response to the lingering malaise in housing is to keep trying to persuade banks to take some short-term losses to minimize the long-term cost of the housing meltdown, for their own sake and their customers'. The White House's latest plan prods Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and banks to refinance millions of creditworthy borrowers who can't get new loans because they owe more than their homes are worth (so-called underwater mortgages).

California not among states that OK bank settlement

Los Angeles Times
More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them. "This enables us to move forward into the very final stages of remaining work," said Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller, who heads the multi-state settlement negotiations. "Federal and state officials, as well as representatives from the banks, continue to address matters that they must complete before finalizing any settlement." Miller would not comment further. The proposed settlement had hung in limbo most of the day as California and other key states pushed past the Monday deadline — an extension of a Friday deadline — to try to get better terms for homeowners from the nation's five major loan servicers.